That’s cool. ‘Uo’ is written with the character for
‘fish’. ‘Hi’ is the character for ‘ice’. This is one of the expressions of
the 72 pentads, the division of 5 days that is part of the 24 solar terms,
and it expresses the pentad that falls between 14-18th February. It expresses
when the thick lake ice thins out and cracks, so that the fish beneath pop
out.

This was sent in by listener Harumi-san. The message
reads:

"To Oh-chan who loves sea-fishing, you probably
have nothing much to do with ice, but I figure that fishermen would be well
attuned to the seasons and sent this mail. From hereon, please input into
your head 14th that February isn’t Valentine’s Day but ‘Fish Rising Above the
Ice’ Day!"

But well, the changing seasons, right… I mean, it’s
still cold right now, if you go fishing in February. I went the other day, it
was so cold! But it was interesting. It’d be fairly… well, I wore thermal
underclothing for both top and bottom. Then on top of that I had a
long-sleeved shirt and jeans on. And trainers. And a down jacket. Then on top
of that, I wore specially-designed protection against cold for fishing. Both
top and bottom. In addition to that, I had heat packs stuck on my stomach and
back. And in addition to that, I had the non-sticky heater packs in my
pocket.

Man, if I didn’t go to that extent, I probably
wouldn’t go at all. Then I had a scarf-type thing on.

You’re probably thinking, "Do you really have
to go that far?" But it was honestly difficult to move in all that.
Since I had to have a lifejacket on as well. I was pretty much a round ball.
(laughs)

But in the past, in the dead of winter, during the
time when seabass were biting at every cast, the sea was that cold. And there
was a little wind as well. I was in that getup and the seabass were biting.
There was a time like that, once.

So at that time, Satoshi… The Satoshi adrenaline was
pumping and I’d gotten hot so I was just doing it in a t-shirt. I don’t have
the photo anymore but I’d taken a photo of me in a t-shirt with the seabass I
caught.

"Eh, you were just in a t-shirt!?"

"No, it’s a long story, but…"

But man, there was really a time like that! The
other day when I went fishing for red sea bream, I got hot as well, so I took
off my heavy outerwear, took off my down jacket and had my sleeves rolled up.
But it got cold immediately after. Naturally, it’s because I didn’t catch
anything.